Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Happy 80th birthday mama!

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Posted by Jo at 4:48 PM

Road to recovery

"Ok Joann, I'm going to start with the operation now. I'll first remove the front one (useless tooth) with a simple extraction. You will feel a bit of pressure when I tug at it but you shouldn't be feeling any pain."

He takes the plier-looking instrument, grips tightly at my tooth and twists it left & right until the tooth loosens. Then, with a firm tug, he pulls the tooth out.

"One down, two to go...Open wide. I'm going to remove the tooth that's hidden in your gums now. This will require me to cut the gums open in order to extract the tooth."

He picks up a small scalpel and makes an incision on my upper gums. Although I'm numb, I feel the cold blade cutting against my gums and blood oozing out slowly. The nurse vacuums the blood and Aidan uses the plier-looking instrument to try pulling out my tooth.

"I can't get a good grip of your tooth yet so I'll need to make a bigger cut. Don't worry, I'll stitch everything back afterwards."

He uses the scalpel to make a deeper cut. This time, more blood oozes out and I feel the flap of my gums resting on the inside of my cheeks. Aidan then picks up the plier and tugs at the tooth. Within a minute, the tooth is removed.

"That's a very tiny and cute tooth. Ok, I'm going to remove the lower wisdom tooth now. This is slightly more complicated because it's bigger and I'll need to break the tooth into two before I remove it. This tooth also has a greater risk because it's lying on top of a nerve which, if injured, could cause numbness around your chin area. Permanent numbness."

Aidan picks up a scalpel, a bigger one this time. He makes an incision into my gums and I feel the blood flowing out and filling up my oral cavity. The nurse frantically uses the vacuum tube to suck up wthe blood but it doesn't seem to stop flowing. Aidan then picks up the drill to dissect the tooth. I feel the vibration and pressure as he exerts force on my tooth. Within 2-3 minutes, the top part of my wisdom tooth is removed. I begin to feel my mouth swell and blood continues to flow out of the open wound. He then makes another cut into my gums and then inserts an odd-looking plier to hold the gums apart while he tried to extract the remaining part of my tooth. The swelling starts to get worse and my jaws ache from the entire surgery. Then, I feel a tug and voilà, the remains of my tooth is removed.

"Ok, almost done. We're going to wait for the blood to stop flowing, and then I will stitch you up."

After a gruelling 10-minute wait, Aidan reappears with a needle and some thread. He dries up the remaining blood in my mouth and starts sewing me up. Despite the numbness, I feel the cold needle going in and out of my gums, tightening with every pull.

One and a half hours later, the entire surgery is done.

Say hello to my teeth!

Sorry for making you read so much. What fun is there if there's no drama in the operation theatre right?

This is what REALLY happened in there. Hehe...

I entered the dental room at 12noon, waited on the dental chair as the anaesthetist prepares her equipment. Aidan briefs me on the procedure while the anaesthetist places a tubing into my left hand. In less than a minute, I start to feel groggy and before I know it, I'm asleep.

I awoke at 1.30pm with a numb and swollen mouth. The nurse shows me my teeth as I laid on the dental chair, feeling dreamy and groggy. Then, Hil appears to take me home.

The end.

Now, it's the journey to recovery. My cheeks are slightly swollen and sore. I have to stick to a liquid diet for the next few days. Well, I guess it's good to remove the wisdom teeth while I'm still young. Less complications, faster recovery time and less pain.

Thanks to all who have prayed for me and supported me through the past few days. =)

Posted by Jo at 2:48 PM

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Tuesday's toothday

I went to my dentist on Tues, whining about the pain caused by the ulcer and Aidan was like, "Are you free? I can remove it for you now". And I was like, "NOW?!?" And he went, "Ya, now"...in the typical nerdy doctor tone. So I was like "Erhm, oookkkkk......Give me 5 mins to recollect myself." Then I headed to my office, drank some water, went to the toilet, said a short prayer and slumped back on the dental chair.

Shortly after, his friendly nurse Jia came in with a cotton bud coated with a lump of cream. I must say that it really helps when nurses are friendly.
"Erhm, what's that?"
"It's numbing cream."
"Oh, numbing cream. That's good. Put more hor."

You know what numbing cream feels like? Strepsils. And it tastes like that too.

5 mins later, Aidan comes in with a needle. "Ok, I'm going to inject the LA now." And he sticks the cold needle into my mouth and into the gums. Thank God for numbing cream - It was a virtually painless experience.

5 mins later, he returns with a plier-looking instrument.
"I'm going to remove the tooth now. You're just going to feel a bit of pressure, but no pain ok?"
"O-A..." (Ok...)

Plier-looking instrument goes into my mouth, tugs at my tooth while I admired the ceiling.
"Huh? Ho-harst?" (Huh? So fast?)
"Yup, it's done. See. This is your tooth."
"Ooh. Woah." (Ooh, wow.)
"That's a huge tooth for a small person like you."
"Ya han..." (Ya man...)

So anyway, this is the idiot that was causing the ulcer. (Ggrrhh...blame the stupid phone camera)

Believe it or not, this is the easy part. It's merely a temporary relief of the pain. I'm still going back on Monday to remove the rest of the gang. And by that, I mean 5 more teeth to be extracted - 3 of which are minor surgery. Apparently, I have 34 teeth, (which makes me special!) because most people only have 32. So ok, remember to pray for me because it's quite a major-minor procedure and I'm probably going to lose quite a lot of blood... =(

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Posted by Jo at 10:25 PM

Monday, August 13, 2007

Ouch...

I'm in pain...and that's an understatement. I can't eat, sleep, talk, yawn, swallow, and whine...Ggrrhh...Ok, I can still whine. Oh man, it's the worst feeling eveeeeerrrr. I'm like a bear with a splinter in its paws! A monkey with a broken tail! A chicken with a bloody stick up its feathered ***! Boohoohoo...

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. I went to see a dentist today, did an x-ray and found the root of my problem. A protruding wisdom tooth rubbing against my gum which gave birth to the mother of all ulcers. And my lower wisdom tooth is growing sideways, pushing against its neighbours and the dentist said I have to remove it soon before it causes further problems. And and and, we found an extra tooth, hidden behind the big protruding one! So cute lar...

Anyway, my extractions will take place next Monday at 12noon. Pls pray for me! Meanwhile, I gotta endure this pain for a week. A good time to lose some weight I guess.